Pete Best (The Beatles)

Caropop

After a fluky financial windfall, Mona Best bought a Victorian mansion in Liverpool, opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar, and the Quarrymen, an early version of the Beatles, became the resident band. When the Beatles needed a drummer for their 1960 Hamburg residency, they called on Mona's son Pete. Pete Best became a key player in the Beatles' evolution before being unceremoniously replaced by Ringo Starr on the eve of the band's EMI recording sessions. Here, in vivid detail, he recalls those early years, including the grueling living and playing conditions in Hamburg and his and McCartney's arrest there for attempted arson. What were his impressions of John, Paul and George? What did he think of the first Lennon-McCartney songs? What happened with the Beatles' Decca audition? He also reveals the last time he had contact with any of them and details about the Casbah's new incarnation as a B&B.